On Rough Exits from Summer and the Coming of Fall

Lady Autumn - Olha Darchuk

So, I guess I should have known things felt a little too good to be true after I got that whole DMV excursion out of the way. It showed up in the mail really quickly, and I figured I could totally just hunker down, stay safe at home, and immerse myself in my writing for a good long while without a care in the world. I even had a nice, long holiday weekend planned for Labor Day.

But then the Friday before, I wound up having to pack Seth into an Uber and go with him to the emergency room for some digestive issues he'd suddenly started having. He also wound up staying in the hospital for a couple of days, as some blood pressure problems also came to light once he was there. He's home now and on meds with plans to stay on top of the issues that were found, but still. 

That was kind of a rough note on which to end the summer, especially considering what a pleasant summer it had actually been up to that point. Life hasn't quite felt right since, so we're still struggling to feel normal again. We've both been taking care to get our rest and make enough time for proper self-care. Hopefully, we'll feel like ourselves again soon.

Getting older is honestly no joke, people, as it's scary how quickly the wear and tear eventually add up. You do what you can to stay healthy, fit, active, and vital... but sometimes it's still not quite enough. If I could tell my younger self -- and young people in general -- just one thing, it would be not to take your health for granted, because one day staying healthy isn't going to be as effortless as it feels when you're 20. I definitely haven't been the worst as far as taking care of myself over the years, but I haven't exactly been the best, either. Definitely food for thought.

........

That said, I suppose it's time to start closing the book on summer and getting ready to move forward into fall. The equinox will be here soon -- around the time of Seth's birthday, actually. The weather is still blissfully cool here, even halfway through September, especially in comparison to other years. No wildfires right down the street this year. Halloween is on the way, with Thanksgiving and Christmas soon to follow. (How it's time for all that again, I'm sure I don't know.)

NaNoWriMo emailed me last week to let me know we could all announce our projects for NaNo 2021 now if we wanted, so I've gone ahead and done that. I'm sticking with the same format I chose last year -- a collection of short stories inspired by songs at the rate of one complete story per day throughout November. However, I feel a disproportionate number of stories about space, planets, or stars coming on for some reason, so I've named this year's collection Garden of Planets. 

I'm incredibly excited to be on board early enough to really take advantage of the entire prep period this time around. I see they even have a little week-by-week course thingy for writers to take and engage with if they like, as well, which I may also take a look at in between writing assignments and new blog posts. I wouldn't mind sinking another MasterClass from a favorite author before it's go-time, as well, but we'll see if I actually have time for that or not. 

I've been keeping pretty busy lately, but last year's NaNo showed me that I can still make room for just about anything in my schedule if it's important enough to me. So it's nice to have something new and productive coming up to get excited about, even if it does still feel like last year's NaNo was only a couple of months ago.